Political Quotes

“Madam President, it was 2015, shortly after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in Baltimore, that I was in Sand Town, the community in which Freddie Gray grew up, meeting with community leaders, many of whom I had known for many, many years. We had an honest discussion about how policing in Baltimore had unfolded. I was surprised to hear that these community leaders who wanted safety in their community felt that they could not confide with the police because they did not want people from their communities subjected to the discriminatory policing of the Baltimore City police force. I had another meeting during that time with a group of African- American families. Everyone told me the story about how they feared particularly when their young African-American sons went into the community because of the fear that they would be discriminated against and hurt by the police. That fear was real. As a result of the Freddie Gray tragedy, we requested a pattern-and- practice investigation by the Department of Justice, and what was discovered during that investigation was that the policies of the Baltimore City Police Department's zero tolerance to crack down on crime were used to profile the African-American community. In many cases, the police presence in the community provoked the violence and added to the harm of the people in the community.…”